Natural city growth in the people’s Republic of China

Peter H. Egger*, Gabriel Loumeau, Nicole Püschel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This paper analyzes the growth of Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the PRC between 1992 and 2013 by focusing on the night-light radiance-a measure of economic activity—of connected subcity places that we refer to as a natural city. This paper documents the rapid growth of natural cities in the PRC between 1992 and 2009 that was followed by a slight reduction in the size of some natural cities between 2010 and 2013 in the aftermath of the recent global financial crisis. Institutional factors—such as the location of places near Special Economic Zones, the ramifications of legal migration from rural to urban areas following reforms to the hukou (household registration) system, and infrastructure accessibility—are found to be important drivers of the integration of peripheral places into natural cities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)51-85
Number of pages35
JournalAsian Development Review
Volume34
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
∗Peter H. Egger (corresponding author): Professor, ETH Zürich, Department of Management, Technology, and Economics; Research Fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research; and Director of Global Economy Programme, CESifo Group. E-mail: [email protected]; Gabriel Loumeau: ETH Zürich, Department of Management, Technology, and Economics. E-mail: [email protected]; Nicole Püschel: ETH Zürich, Department of Management, Technology, and Economics. E-mail: [email protected]. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation through project number CRSII 1_154446. We would also like to thank the participants at the Asian Development Review Conference on Urban and Regional Development in Asia held in Seoul in July 2016, the managing editor, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions. In this paper, the Asian Development Bank recognizes “China” as the People’s Republic of China. The usual disclaimer applies.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Asian Development Bank and Asian Development Bank Institute.

Keywords

  • City growth
  • Metropolitan statistical areas
  • People’s republic of china

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Natural city growth in the people’s Republic of China'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this